The San Marcos High girls’ volleyball team needed a victory over Buena in its regular season finale to clinch the fourth and final automatic berth into the playoffs out of the Channel League.
The stakes didn’t bother the Royals as they cruised to a 25-17, 25-12, 25-22, sweep over the visiting Bulldogs on Tuesday night at the Thunderhut.
“They played strong defense so the thing for us is we’re not getting kills every single time, but we’re putting the ball on the other side of the net and not making errors,” said San Marcos coach Dwayne Hauschild. “We had seven errors out of all the hitting we did tonight.”
San Marcos received excellent production and efficiency from its middles led by Cora Loomer, who finished with a match-high ten kills on 16 attempts with no hitting errors.
Loomer is one of ten players on the San Marcos roster, who came into the season with no varsity experience. With many sophomores in key roles the Royals started slow this season, but have won three four of five Channel League matches to close out the regular season and secure a spot in the playoffs.
“We had some injuries and illness and all that type of stuff so it’s tough to come out of the hole early with a bunch of kids that have never seen it before,” Hauschild said. “They’re all great athletes and they are all super good kids.”
San Marcos jumped out to a 10-2 lead to begin set one after a kill by Grace Stone. A kill by Elena Thomas off an errant Buena pass extended the Royals lead to 18-6, but Buena did not go down quietly.
An ace serve by Shai Daniels sparked an 11-2 run by the Bulldogs that was capped off by another ace from Viola Barrios that cut their deficit to 20-17.
However, San Marcos scored the five consecutive points to close out the set, including two kills by Loomer and clinched a 1-0 set lead on a Buena rotation violation.
After dominating set two, San Marcos found itself in a dogfight in the third and final set as a kill by Buena’s Taylor Beller gave the Bulldogs a 21-20 lead.
Thomas responded with another clutch kill for San Marcos to tie the score at 21-21 and after a couple Buena hitting errors, a Loomer kill brought San Marcos to set point at 24-21. The Royals clinched the match on a Buena net violation.
The two seniors on San Marcos’ roster Kaylin Cooney and Katie Kracke will be honored before a non-league match against Mission Prep on Thursday.
Ventura clinched first place in the Channel League with a perfect 14-0 record, Dos Pueblos finished in second place with a 10-4 record, Santa Barbara finished in third place at 9-5 and San Marcos came in fourth place with an 8-6 record.
Playoff brackets for all nine divisions will be released on Saturday morning.